Spitting Cobra
by Sylverlin
Summary: Yet another with-the-clones thing, inspired by an actual artillery battery operating in Afghanistan. An experiment in fictional war reporting.  Ain't much in here so far. Rated T, because it will probably earn that rating at some point.


_Battery Spitting Cobra, 407__th__ Artillery, 7__th__ Sky Corps_

_Day 22_

So, yeah. The Spitting Cobra. There's eight of us and a gun. (Should I list us here, Spook? Okay.) Here we go, then.

First, there's Able. He's the sergeant, our CO. He's the one whom the regimental command annoys, and in turn, he annoys us. Okay, he really isn't that annoying. Most of the time. Regimental command is probably worse.

Then there's the second-in-command, Staples. None of us honestly has any idea how he got that nickname. He never told us and probably plans on keeping it that way. He's one rather silent chap, though, so he might just have forgotten to tell us and we don't want to ask. Possibly, we don't exactly want to know.

Next up is Norm. He's the math guy, he does most of the calculations when we get a more complicated fire mission. (We can all do the basic point-and-shoot kind of thing, thank you very much, but there's a bit more than that to hitting a moving convoy over two and a half ridges. In bad weather. In seven minutes.) Able and Staples take turns checking, but as far as I know, Norm has never made a bad mistake yet. There's actually a betting pool on how long it will last, but don't tell him… Yeah, he's got a lot of respect from us for what he does. That doesn't prevent him from being the butt of a lot of jokes, though, but he usually laughs as well, so I guess it's all right.

Then I should probably tell you about Spook… and I strongly recommend that if you are still reading this, you should skip this paragraph… okay. Well, I warned you. Spook's our tech guy. Something gets broken, he fixes it. Period. That's the normal part of him. The less than normal part comes out at night and… well, you see what his nickname is. He's downright scary, man, I mean, I think he could stare down Windu or someone. (Hey! Don't hit me!) He might be the toughest guy of our lot. Word is, there was some glitch in his batch which made them meaner. If you ever see Spook, you'll know it's true.

Bingo. I know what you're thinking, that's not a nickname, that's a kriffin' game. Well, guess what, it's a nickname and it belongs to the best shot in the battalion with an AV-7C. He and Norm, they're the real brain and brawn of Spitting Cobra. We're proud of Bingo and Spook has actually punched a hole in one guy's armor when he made fun of the nickname. Norm crunches the numbers. Bingo _delivers_.

Dante's the ordnance guy. He takes good care of the hurt we're dealing out to the seppies before it's off to kiss a droid. And let me tell you, you really don't want to be there when that happens. He is also the other one of us besides Able who gets to talk to command regularly, because he does the ammunition reports and requests. I guess that being annoying works the other way with him, he could talk an SBD into giving birth or something, the way his mouth pretty much never shuts. When we're all ignoring his tirades, he actually starts talking to the shells. And you thought Spook was weird… Well, yeah. Spook _is_.

Then there's Maple, our medic. 'nuff said. Keeps us alive and kicking and washing our hands. Second most talkative after Dante, but not nearly as annoying. Also, if you feel like an extra desert with your MRE, ask Maple. He keeps insane amounts of the stuff stashed, we're thinking he's got good friends in the Chow Corps. Of course, he may feel like you ought to do something for him, then, so I don't think he's ever been seen cleaning or washing anything. Except for the medic stuff. And hands.

Yeah, and there's me, Crows. I'm the comms man, I take care of our radios, navigation, BCSS link and stuff like that. I'm also responsible, together with Norm, for the computers, that is, the software part. Spook does the hardware. Lucky for me, the gun's system isn't very complicated.

(What? Okay, I'll tell them, they might not know.) BCSS is the Battalion Combat Synchronization System. It's what keeps everybody doing what they're supposed to be doing, plus showing everyone else in the grid what you are doing and where in real time. It's a tremendous help, the infantry guys would be lost without it and there would be many, many more blue-on-blue incidents. (Thank the Force or whatever you want to thank, there's been no such mishap in our battalion as long as I can remember. Well, don't thank the Force, thank the BCSS.) Of course, it's a tactical/strategic must. The clankers are all doing pretty much the same thing… bah, I'm talking too much. Better wrap this up, I gotta catch some sleep. We pulled an all-nighter last night, because there was some RC op going on somewhere near and we were supposed to be on alert for providing terrain denial and diversion fire.

Oh. I mustn't forget Lily, too. Lily's the gun. The big one. She an AV-7C, and can deliver pretty much anything, anywhere. And she's beautiful, too. The AV-7 is a multi-purpose self-propelled artillery piece, primarily tasked for anti-vehicle operation at short-to-medium range – this _is_ the artillery we're talking about, so long range starts around thirty miles – but the AV-7C variant has a modified bore and loading mechanism to adapt to all sorts of rounds, not just the standard HE/AP mix. We can do concussion, incendiary, cluster, mass, seismic, even AA flak in a pinch and word is some guys are remotely laying down small mine fields with it. Nothing like retreating into what was perfectly safe a few minutes ago and have pebbles go off wherever you put your clanker foot down, huh? We haven't gotten a fire mission like that yet, but I guess it's just a matter of time. And no doubt Lily's going to handle it, like everything so far…

Okay. Time to sleep. I'll be back. Or someone else will, not sure who and when. We should be re-deploying soon, because our work here is pretty much done, only it's not yet sure where to, so I guess there will be some hassle in the next few days. Able yelling, Spook… spooking and stuff. So. Yeah. See you.

* * *

_Myle, dear,_

_just so you don't worry - I'm safely on Geonosis, embedded with a squad from artillery. I still can't believe I got the embed permit, this is so exciting... I mean, how many journalists in the whole galaxy get this chance? _

_Did some basic get-to-know-you today, I hope I don't lose the recording, because this sure looks like an interesting bunch of... eh, people? For a lack of a better term. I must say it was really freaky, seeing the same face so many times, I think I'm still getting used to it. I'm really trying to talk to them like they were normal people, though, just like they stressed at the GAR PR Division briefing, and it seems to be working. I mean, one at least talked to me, it wasn't too enthusiastic about it, but I guess it was just nervous... We'll see._

_Oh, I'm rambling about my work again... How're the nephews? Are they doing all right? I heard from your sister that Sanjee had some fever, I sure hope he's okay... And how're you settling in at the new office?_

_Anyway, holo me back as soon as you can, I'm anxious, sweetie... ;-)_

_Kisses,_

_Sora _


End file.
